Ryanair will offer direct employment contracts within the next few weeks to all pilots in Germany who are currently on contracts via an agency, the budget airline said on Thursday. The Irish carrier has come under fire from unions, especially in Germany, for its practice of employing some pilots via third-party agencies, such as McGinley Aviation. "McGinley Aviation have decided to withdraw from supplying contractor pilots for Ryanair in the German market, and Ryanair has now begun the process of offering these contractors direct employment," a Ryanair spokeswoman said.

Former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia remain critically ill in hospital after being poisoned with a nerve agent in the southern English city of Salisbury. At 4:15 p.m. (1615 GMT) on March 4, Wiltshire police got a call from a member of the public about two people who were acting strangely. Police found Skripal, 66, and Yulia, 33, unconscious on a bench outside The Maltings shopping centre in Salisbury.

Although it has recovered two-thirds of its losses from a selloff earlier this month, the index is set to break a 15-month streak of gains since Donald Trump won the U.S. elections in November 2016. Many investors expect the Fed to raise interest rates three times this year, with some pundits predicting four, if U.S. inflation starts to take off, especially as growth is set to get another boost from the Trump administration's tax cuts and spending plans.

Hedge funds focused on trading cryptocurrencies have struggled to eke out returns this year amid a sharp sell-off in the highly volatile market, in spite of a flood of new funds setting up to deploy investor cash. The research firm recorded a record high of 226 global hedge funds with such a strategy, up from 110 global hedge funds as of Oct (Shenzhen: 000069.SZ - news) . The surge in funds comes at a volatile time for the cryptocurrencies they trade in.

North Sea Brent crude differentials weakened on Thursday to the lowest since October 2017 as Gunvor remained a seller of benchmark grades, while Forties found support from a higher bid. PLATTS WINDOW * ...

Hedge funds focused on trading cryptocurrencies more than doubled in the four months to Feb. 15, hitting a record high of 226, showed new data from fintech research house Autonomous NEXT on Thursday. The ...

New European Union rules to increase protection for consumers wherever they buy insurance products will be delayed from this month to October, the bloc's member state representatives agreed on Wednesday. "The delay will enable the insurance industry to better prepare for the directive and for the changes necessary to comply with implementing rules," the bloc's member state ambassadors said in a statement after a Brussels meeting. Some member states also needed more time to put the "insurance intermediation" rules into national law.

Oil prices slid more than 3 percent on Friday as U.S. futures fell below $60 a barrel for the first time since December on renewed concerns about rising crude supplies. U.S. and Brent crude futures have slid more than 11 percent from this year's peak in late January. Brent fell nearly 9 percent for the week while U.S. crude dropped 10 percent, the steepest weekly declines since January 2016.

The U.S. dollar rose on Friday against a number of currencies including the Japanese yen and the euro after strong national jobs data, but the greenback later pared gains and investors were not convinced advances would last past the day. U.S. job growth surged in January and wages increased further, recording their largest annual gain in more than 8-1/2 years. As a result, the U.S. bond market and the stock market began selling off on Friday, he said.

Bond markets in Europe and the United States looked set on to end January with their worst month since late 2016, a sign that the tide for bonds has turned as a stronger world economy spells the end for ultra-easy monetary policies. Most euro zone government bond yields were up in late trades.

Statoil expects the maximum allowed natural gas production from Norway's Troll field to remain unchanged at 36 billion cubic meters in the 12-month period beginning on Oct. 1, the company's head of natural ...

An attempt by Singaporean billionaire Kwek Leng Beng to take full control of Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (M&C) in a deal valuing the business at 2 billion pounds collapsed after minority shareholders blocked the acquisition. Kwek's firm City Developments Limited (SES: C09.SI - news) (CDL), already M&C's majority investor, secured acceptances from only 47.14 percent of the London-listed hotelier's minority shareholders for its 620-pence-a-share offer, CDL said in a statement on Friday.

Rio Tinto lifted force majeure on Jan. 1 for shipments of refined copper and acid from its Kennecott mine in the United States, 79 days after declaring it could not meet customer commitments, a spokesman ...

John Kemp is a Reuters market analyst. LONDON, Jan 25 (Reuters) - OPEC and its allies insist more needs to be done to reduce global oil inventories but the market already shows unmistakeable signs of becoming very tight. Brent futures have moved into the largest and most sustained backwardation since June and July 2014, before the slump began and when the spot price was still trading above $100 per barrel.

On the banks of the River Tay in the Scottish highlands, a parade of pipers and a whisky-based blessing helped mark the start of the country's salmon fishing season on Monday. The ceremony in the village of Kenmore, which marks the start of the season on the Tay, has been held to celebrate the new salmon fishing season in Scotland for over 70 years, though on some rivers fishing begins a few days earlier.

Sterling on Friday rocketed to its highest level against the dollar since the vote to leave the European Union, after a report that the Netherlands and Spain were open to a deal for Britain to remain as close as possible to the trading bloc. The pound traded up more than one percent on the day, pushing to as high as $1.37 and in the process hitting its highest level since June 24, 2016, when the pound plunged after Britain voted to quit the EU. The gains came after Bloomberg reported that the Spanish and Dutch finance ministers had agreed to work together for a Brexit agreement that maintains close ties between the EU and Britain, in what would be a clear divergence in views among the 27 EU member states about how to treat Britain after it leaves.

** Shares in Carillion sink 37.5 pct to a record low after Sky News reports the troubled building and services co has put administrators on standby in case rescue talks fail. ** Co is asking creditors ...

Norway's pipeline exports of natural gas to Europe in 2018 should match last year's record 117.4 billion standard cubic metres (bcm), the head of offshore pipeline system operator Gassco said. Exports were driven by a combination of high production and processing capacity in 2017, as well as demand for Norwegian gas in Europe, Frode Leversund told Reuters on Thursday.

* Vitol bought core of oil business based in Americas in Oct (Shenzhen: 000069.SZ - news) . LONDON, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Noble Group is closing down its London oil desk and winding down its Asia oil operations, sources familiar with the matter said, as heavy losses and high debt force what was once Asia's biggest commodities trader to restructure. Since then, Noble has been winding down its remaining oil trading operations in London and Singapore, with many key traders leaving to join competitors.